Health Care? Jesus Complicates It

by Bob Setzer, Jr.
Like most Americans, I’m trying to sort through the current health care debate. But for me, this issue is complicated by the fact I am not just an American consumer of health care; I am also Christian. So I don’t have the luxury of reducing the current debate to “What’s in it for me?” That question gets things in focus pretty quickly. But I have to ask the Jesus question as well: “What’s in it for my neighbor?” It was the Master after all, who said the essence of a godly life was to (1) love God and (2) love your neighbor as yourself.

Does that mean I’m about to lobby for a “big government” solution to the nation’s health care ills? A lot of people seem to make that leap: bring Jesus into the discussion and anybody who is sick should get whatever help they need at taxpayers’ expense. And yes, Jesus did challenge the entrenched interests of his day, stood by and with the poor, and taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” But as to the public policy mechanisms for making that happen, Jesus’ teaching is mostly silent. No surprise in that. He lived under Roman occupation, not American democracy.

The one time Jesus was pressed on a hot button political issue--paying taxes to Caesar--he asked for a coin. “Whose picture is on it?,” asked Jesus. When told the emperor’s image was on the coin, Jesus said, “Then give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God, the things that are God’s!” In my mind’s eye, Jesus then flips the coin back to his interrogators. He hasn’t so much answered their question, as deepened it. The answer is still theirs--and ours--to forge.

Do I believe Jesus cares about the health care plight of so many uninsured and under-insured Americans? Absolutely. And neighbor-love, which is at the heart of following him, requires that I care too. And more than “care,” that like the Good Samaritan, I do what I can to get sick and wounded people the help they need. But as to the exact shape of that moral obligation in the current health care debate, I have more questions than answers.

How can we be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” in lobbying for needed changes in our nation’s health care system? How can we make sure children, the special objects of God’s compassion, are not penalized for being born into poor families without adequate medical care? How do we balance “neighbor love” with taking responsibility for oneself and one’s own family?

I know a lot of people have this all figured out. I don’t. But then most of the time, Jesus doesn’t simplify my life so much as he complicates it. That is why following him is so much more fulfilling--and infuriating--than following the Answer Man we keep wanting our Messiah to be.